The Best Spice Cake
The Best Spice Cake is a soft, fluffy, moist spiced bundt cake made with simple pantry ingredients. It’s the perfect dessert for the holidays.
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This is my husband’s Grandma Mary’s recipe and he’s been eating this cake for as long as he can remember. Years ago he asked me to make it for Thanksgiving and after one bite I knew why he loved this cake so much!
It’s the warm spices you love around the holidays and it’s made so easily! It’s basically a doctored up boxed spice cake, so seriously, anyone can make it! I promise it’s fool proof.
Even our super picky kids love this cake- if that tells you anything.
More desserts recipes for a crowd
Grandma Mary is no longer with us, so making this cake is extra special. I’m so happy she shared the recipe for our family to continue the tradition.
What you’ll need
You can find the full, printable recipe with exact measurements at the bottom of this post. Read on for more details and tips!
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- Bundt Cake Pan– you could also make this in 2 round cake pans or in a rectangular baking dish.
- Boxed spice cake mix-the box cake mix sizes keep changing on me, but I used a 13.25 ounce box. You can use any size from 13 ounce to 16 ounce.
- Pumpkin puree– the canned pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling
- Vegetable oil– or substitute unsalted melted butter
- Vanilla instant pudding mix– makes the cake extra moist!
- Eggs
- Cinnamon– for extra spice
- Water– for the cake mix
How to make it
This cake couldn’t be easier and you can make it the day before! Just hold off on dusting the powdered sugar until serving.
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Grease and lightly flour a Bundt pan. (Or you can use a 9×13 pan)
Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes.
Pour batter into the bundt pan and bake 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Wait 20 minutes before removing cake from the pan.
Dust with powdered sugar to finish. Slice and serve.
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Tips
- You can use 2 round cake pans or a rectangular baking dish if you don’t have a bundt pan.
- Be sure to butter and flour the pan or use nonstick cooking spray or the cake will stick to the pan.
- Replace the vegetable oil with melted unsalted butter.
- Try this with carrot cake.
- Be sure to use canned pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling.
- Cover leftovers with plastic wrap. This cake is good up to 3 days.
- You can prepare this cake the day before. I like to keep it in the refrigerator and dust with powdered sugar right before serving.
Glaze
We love this spice cake simply dusted in powdered sugar, but you can serve with a glaze instead or with whipped cream.
To make the glaze: whisk together 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 2-4 tablespoons of milk until it’s a glaze-like consistency. Pour over the cake and allow the glaze to set for 10 minutes.
If the glaze is too thin, add more powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency. If it’s too thick, add 1 tablespoon of milk and stir.
More desserts
- Slab Cherry Pie
- Peppermint Patty Poke Cake
- Pumpkin Pie Spice Baked Donuts
- Caramel Apple Dip
- Crock Pot Peach Cobbler
- Texas Sheet Cake
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The Best Spice Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 13.25 ounce box spice cake mix
- 1 c. canned pure pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
- ½ c. Vegetable oil or melted unsalted butter
- 3.5 ounce pkg. vanilla instant pudding mix
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ c. water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Grease and lightly flour a Bundt pan. (Or you can use a 9×13 pan)
- Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes.
- Pour batter into the bundt pan and bake 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Wait 20 minutes before removing cake from the pan.
- Dust with powdered sugar to finish. Slice and serve.
Notes
- You can use 2 round cake pans or a rectangular baking dish if you don’t have a bundt pan.
- Be sure to butter and flour the pan or use nonstick cooking spray or the cake will stick to the pan.
- Replace the vegetable oil with melted unsalted butter.
- Try this with carrot cake.
- Be sure to use canned pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling.
- Cover leftovers with plastic wrap. This cake is good up to 3 days.
- You can prepare this cake the day before. I like to keep it in the refrigerator and dust with powdered sugar right before serving.